Google and Samsung postpone the announcement of Android 4.0 and the Nexus Prime

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  • October 7, 2011 at 7:41 am

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Samsung Nexus Prime teaser

Just as we were getting warmed up for the release of the Nexus Prime and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on October 11th at the Unpacked event, Samsung and Google have come out with an announcement postponing the unveiling of the new product. The official word is:

Samsung and Google decide to postpone the new product announcement at CTIA Fall. We agree that it is just not the right time to announce a new product. New date and venue will be shortly announced.

The companies haven’t given a reason for the delay. We could speculate that the announcement was initially hurried to beat the shipping date of the new iPhone. Since an iPhone 5 hasn’t made an appearance, pressure for the two companies has eased leaving them some time to put any final touches to the device and software. But that’s only our own speculation.

In the meantime you can enjoy a video showing-off both the Nexus Prime and Android 4.0.

UPDATE: The two companies have now elaborated in a new statement that the postponement is out of respect to Steve Jobs: We believe this is not the right time to announce a new product as the world expresses tribute to Steve Jobs’s passing. Speculation now calls for rescheduling of the event for October 27th in London this time; clashing with Nokia World 2011 and the release of Nokia’s Windows Phone 7.5 Mango devices.

Samsung Nexus Prime running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich caught on video

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  • October 7, 2011 at 6:36 am

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Samsung Nexus Prime leak

You know that a new product launch is getting near when you have all sorts of leaks happening left and right. If you didn’t already know, the big news coming your way on the smartphone front is the announcement of the first Android 4.0 handset, rumored to be Samsung’s Nexus Prime (a.k.a. Galaxy Nexus) and happening at the next Unpacked event on October 11th.

The latest leak comes from the land of Dracula, mobilissimo.ro has posted a video of the Nexus Prime showing off the AMOLED HD beauty and most importantly Google’s latest Android build. A series of screen captures of the new OS are waiting for you together with the video after the break. Ice Cream Sandwich surely looks sweet!
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Samsung Nexus Prime a.k.a. Galaxy Nexus specced, teased in video — Something big is coming

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  • October 6, 2011 at 2:40 pm

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Samsung Nexus Prime teaser

Next Tuesday, 11th of October, Samsung has another Unpacked event scheduled, this time headed for San Diego, California. The big news is that, this might be one of the most important moments for the Android ecosystem, the unveiling of the first Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” device: the Nexus Prime. Samsung has released a teaser video for the Unpacked event (which you can find after the break) showing a curvy smartphone with docking pins, citing “Something BIG is coming” and a Google logo making friends with a Samsung logo.

We’ve already reported on the rumored specs for the Nexus Prime, i.e. the device could sport a 4.6-inch Super AMOLED 1280×720 HD resolution display, 1.5GHz Processor, 5MP back and 1MP from cameras and shoot 1080p HD video.
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Is this the Samsung Nexus Prime? Google’s first Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone

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  • September 10, 2011 at 9:02 am

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Google Nexus Prime Samsung's Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone

After we got official word from Google’s own Eric Schmidt, that Android’s next iteration, 4.0, codename Ice Cream Sandwich, is coming in October or November, speculation on the first handset to run it, is running high.

All bets are that Samsung is the lucky Nexus manufacturer this time around and the name of handset is Nexus Prime — Nexus Galaxy wouldn’t sound right, now would it? The latest leak comes from an unlikely source; a UK retailer just posted a webpage for the Nexus Prime listing a number of specs which we’ve already seen rumored for the handset.

The site lists: Android 4.0, 4.6-inch Super AMOLED, 1.5GHz Processor, 5MP Camera + F 1MP, 1080p HD Video, WiFi, GPS.

This could be a solid leak or just the attempt of a retailer to drive some free trafic to its website, it really remains to be seen.
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Drawing on the Samsung Galaxy Note using the S Pen stylus (video)

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  • September 10, 2011 at 7:38 am

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Drawing on the Samsung Galaxy Note using the S Pen stylus

There are two things that make the Samsung Galaxy Note stand out, first is its incredible 5.3-inch HD Super AMOLED screen, and second, the stowable S Pen stylus. The S Pen is a pressure sensitive stylus which paired with a host of Samsung applications allows you to perform certain tasks, such as taking handwritten notes, but also to unleash your creativity by drawing directly on your phone’s screen.

Head over after the break to see a demo video of what someone with artistic inclinations can do on the Note.
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Samsung Galaxy Note 5.3-inch smartphone benchmarked, deemed worthy (video)

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  • September 6, 2011 at 4:33 am

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Samsung Galaxy Note Quadrant benchmark

We’ve already expressed our excitement for Samsung’s mammoth new phone, the 5.3-inch HD Super AMOLED Galaxy Note, in our previous coverage. Well the good folks over at Techblog.gr got the chance to run the Quadrant benchmark on the device at the IFA show floor and got some unsurprisingly impressive results.

The Note runs on a dual-core Samsung 1.4GHz processor and managed to score 3,624 on Quadrant, ever so slightly better than even then 1.2GHz Samsung Galaxy S II score, putting it ahead of every other Android smartphone in terms of processing performance.

It’s important to note, however, that the Galaxy Note features a screen resolution of 1280×800 pixels, meaning that it pushes 2.7-times for pixels than the Samsung Galaxy S II (with resolution 800×480). That alone makes the benchmark result even more impressive. You can see the benchmark for yourselves at around the 4.5-minute mark on the video after the break

Of course, performance doesn’t come cheap, the Samsung Galaxy Note is expected to hit Scandinavian shores — Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark — first, in November, with a price tag of around 670-750 euros ($1,000). The phone is then expected to arrive in the UK a the start of 2012 but no US availability in the horizon yet.
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Samsung announces Galaxy Note: HD 5.3-inch Super AMOLED screen and built-in stylus

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  • September 1, 2011 at 3:19 pm

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Samsung Galaxy Note: HD 5.3-inch Super AMOLED smartphone with stylus

Samsung has just announced a new Android device, the 5.3-inch Galaxy Note, which challenges our perceptions of what is a phone. This is the first smart phone to go past the 5-inch barrier, the Dell Steak featured a 5-inch screen but it has now been discontinued. The Galaxy Note however doesn’t feature just any type of screen but a surely gorgeous 1280×800 (that’s 285ppi) Super AMOLED (not Plus) screen together with a stowaway pressure sensitive stylus, named S Pen, which can be used for drawing and note taking. In fact Samsung will include a number of applications which will take advantage of the S Pen while also releasing an SDK for third-party developers.

The phone will need a lot of power to drive that kind of resolution, and that will be brought by an unidentified Samsung dual-core 1.4GHz processor powered by a large 2,500mAh battery. Despite the size, the phone will weigh 178g (6.3 oz) and measure 9.65mm (0.38 inches) thick.

The Galaxy Note will run Android 2.3 together with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI. Front and back cameras of-course with 2 and 8-megapixels resolution each, with the rear camera able to shoot 1080p video. The Note will support HSPA+ but we are hearing it will also be LTE-capable. We know that everyone will say its too big for a phone, but we like, no, we really like big screened phones, and we’d love to get this baby into our hands; hopefully we won’t look too silly talking to a big piece of slab.

Video after the break.
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Samsung spills the beans on Sprint’s 4.52-inch Super AMOLED Plus Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch

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  • August 30, 2011 at 1:35 pm

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Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch on Sprint – applications

Guess what happens when you wander around online training manuals just before an evening of new product announcements. Well, you stumble on one of these new and still announced products. A tipster has sent us screen shots and detailed product specs of a very juicy new handset heading over to Sprint, the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch.

Samsung is not toying around with Epic 4G Touch. The new smartphone has huge 4.52-inch Super AMOLED Plus Gorilla Glass screen while staying super-thin at 9.59mm and weighing 4.09 oz. The Epic 4G Touch runs a dual-core 1.2GHz Samsung Exnyos C210 processor — same as the original SGSII — and will run Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

The phone will run on Sprint’s 4G WiMAX network and have an 8.0-megapixel rear-facing and 2.0-megapixel front-facing cameras. Samsung is loading the phone with its Media and Social Hubs.

More images and full details after the break.
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Samsung announces Galaxy S II LTE 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus phone and Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE for IFA, Berlin

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  • August 29, 2011 at 6:37 am

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Samsung Galaxy S II LTE and Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE

Samsung has just announced LTE versions of the Galaxy S II smartphone and the Galaxy Tab 8.9 ahead of its event at IFA, Berlin. LTE techonology allows devices, connected to a 4G network, theoretical download and upload speeds up to 100Mbps and 50Mbps respectively; much faster than HSPA+ connections.

However the two devices didn’t just gain a new radio with svelte connectivity, both have also received a much welcomed speed bump, with a new 1.5GHz dual-core processor. The Galaxy S II LTE will also receive one of those fancy 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus screens, hopefully it won’t be too much strain for the 1850mAh capacity battery. Everything else remains pretty much the same, with the phone running Android Gingerbread and offering NFC, Bluetooth 3.0 and Wi-Fi a/b/g/n connectivity.

Besides the processor bump, the Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE maintains its 8.6mm thickness, weighing 455g (15.7 oz), with its 8.9-inch screen offering a 1280 x 800 resolution and will be running Android 3.2 Honeycomb. Gallery after the break.
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Samsung teases something big for 1st September 2011 at IFA Berlin, could it be the Nexus Prime?

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  • August 18, 2011 at 2:48 pm

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Samsung Mobile Unpacked teaser for IFA Berlin 2011

We broke the news this morning about Samsung’s upcoming Super AMOLED Plus sporting smartphones. So what do we get now, a teaser video that ‘something big is coming’ at the Samsung Unpacked event at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin on September 1, 2011.

So what does a bunch of young hipsters have in their hands while treading the streets of old Europe? A ball of light? From the video, which you can find after the break, we can safely deduct that ‘something big’ will be a new smartphone. Could this be the announcement of the much rumored and awaited Nexus Prime, the first smartphone to run Android Ice Cream Sandwich on a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and a 4.65-inch 1280×720 Super AMOLED screen. Color us excited!
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Samsung Super AMOLED HD screens could be coming to smartphones and tablets this fall

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  • August 18, 2011 at 5:09 am

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Samsung Super AMOLED

So far Samsung hadn’t been able to pack pixels densely enough to create high definition AMOLED displays for mobile phones. By high definition (HD), we mean any display with a resolution higher than 1280×720 (720p). OLED-Info is now claiming that Samsung has been able to break the existing pixel density barrier.

The new technology will enable Samsung to create high-def AMOLED screens, named Super AMOLED HD, while the new fabrication process is said to also be cheaper than LCD screens, so expect quite a lot of devices to be packing these screens in the future. Compared to LCDs, AMOLED screens offer better viewing angles and better black levels. The new displays will use PenTile Matrix technology, that some argue does not offer the full resolution claimed, as each pixel is not made up of three (red, green, and blue) subpixels
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Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 concedes to iPad 2’s price and thinness

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  • March 4, 2011 at 8:45 am

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

Samsung’s mobile division executive VP, Lee Don-joo, has come out in a rare display of honesty stating that they will have to rethink the pricing of the company’s latest Android 3.0 tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, in light of Apple’s update of the iPad.

We will have to improve the parts that are inadequate, Lee told Yonhap news agency. Apple made it very thin.

The iPad 2 is slimmer than Samsung’s upcoming flagship tablet, which measures 10.9mm thick compared to 8.8mm for the iPad.
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